Paint the Town Red (Patty & Archibald)

Everything started to fall in line like dominoes. Anytime anything bad happened it was always like clockwork with her. First came the dark grey clouds that blotted out the sun and brought a chill into the air, you know the type. The dismal skies that just oppressed and warned of more things to come. Then came the rolling thunder on the horizon and the whipping wind, when the clouds became darker and more violent and you could see it coming to a head. Patricia was thundering pretty hard already. With the still slick with the rain she was out diving headfirst into the night life. The lanky chick already had a few drinks as she wandered up and down the Backlight hitting up Blackout Street. Not it's real name, it was like Cleveland Boulevard or some shit but everyone called it Blackout Street since it was the best place to walk up and down and get wasted. Patricia was out looking to get smashed and make terrible decisions. She was a terrible person now and nothing mattered so it was totally okay.

Patty went out in her best bad chick dress. Short skirt, long leather jacket, ripped leggings and boots, you know the drill. But she came because nothing mattered here. Nobody knew her and she didn't know anyone, it'd be an adventure and it'd go as far as she felt like taking it. Which was pretty far. She didn't give a shit anymore so anything could happen. Maybe she'd get a new tattoo? Or a piercing? Maybe she'd score some coke, who fucking knew!? Not Patricia. She didn't care what happened as long as she got to separate from what happened. Start fresh and leave it behind, y'know? Not like anyone could understand what she went through and it made her feel dangerous. Dangerous and reckless and she just had to flex that, to see just what her limit was. How bad she could really be, how far she could fall before she hit the ground. The ground would hurt but the fall was exciting and as long as it was fun then it would be worth it.

The druggie girl stood leaned up against the wall of a nightclub, Seventh Circle or something. It was a good club but it was full of degenerates just like her which is why she went. To be with her people. To do something dumb just to do it. Tonight she couldn't be stopped and wouldn't be stopped and that's just how that was. She had to know she had a choice. She had to know what she would do. So she stood fading against the club with a cigarette on her lips, an absent smirk, and alcohol in her veins. But it wasn't enough yet. It didn't go far enough.

Archie wandered a lot, maybe its because he had a wanderlust after living for so long on the road that he couldn't just sit down inside home for too long. Or maybe it was just his preferred way to kill time until the next interesting thing happens and ward off his own boredom. Whatever it was, it didn't matter now he just walked through the streets of Endymion. Eventually he found himself in a night club, Seventh Circle. Probably referring to the Seventh Circle of hell from Dante's Inferno, though wouldn't the second be more fitting? Unless they liked when people beat the shit out of each other, in which case this club was fucking wild.

At first the forgotten just kinda of wandered around the club, scouting out what kind of people visited this place and getting a feel of the place's aesthetic. Mostly people looking for a thrill, damned souls all of them, the kind of people he doesn't mind being around. They do stupid shit and its funny to him. Archibald himself wasn't big into the whole 'getting fucked up on hard drugs', he liked alcohol but that was it. The jester would then move on to scouting out people who were too altered to miss their wallets, he got like two suckers while at it, took their money and used it to buy himself a bottle of beer. The wallets were just dropped on the nearest trashcan afterwards. As he sipped from the bottle he caught in the corner of his vision a girl with purple all by herself and with a dumb smirk on her face.


He'd approach the girl while smiling, she had a cute outfit. Though he wasn't there for her outfit, she was up to no good so that would be a couple of good laughs

The girl didn't know what to do with all her options, clashing against each
other in her skull. Drink, dance, get fucked up, fight someone, break
something, screw someone, it didn't matter a whole lot until she knew what
her limit was. How much trouble could she get into? How far would she take
it? How much damage could she cause, what type of person was she? Patty
didn't know, she never knew how to ask herself those things. She always
learned them the hard way. Because after the other night she was no longer
sure. Everyone liked to think that deep down they were a good person. She
couldn't really do that anymore. So it was time to find out just who was
wearing her shoes. So far tonight it was party girl that liked to drink and
be obnoxious, numbing the pain with alcohol and distractions but she was far
from finished here. She hadn't even taken anything yet. Hey, maybe some
Oxycontin would liven things up? Or skittles? But she had to find a place to
start. Patty was stalling, just hanging around and drinking, knocking her
knees together before jumping out of that plane.

Her head lifted with her same absent, stupid grin when he walked up to her.
Some bro'd up thuggish guy probably here for the obvious, going for the
hook-up. As if she knew the type, it was hard to tell with guys like
this. If the swagger was real or fake, a hardass or a pretender, and if they
were slick and fun or fronting to hide a walking bag of shit. But it'd be
interesting to find out. She could start here.

Shyeah, it's called Endymion.

The girl took a drag off her cigarette without changing her expression,
letting the smoke roll through her nose and into the damp air.
"Ffffffnnnn... yeah, I got one. So a biker and a
preacher go golfing, right? Preacher steps up to the tee and swings, he gets
a clean slice and it sails aaaaaaaall the way to the green. Then the biker
steps up, squares his shoulders and lets it rip. So like, the club eats turf
and he says Fuck, I missed! The preacher shakes his head and says
You shouldn't use such foul language, surely it's the road to Hell.
The biker tells him to shut his fuckin' mouth an' goes for another swing,
same result, Goddamnit! What the fuck!? So the preacher says If
you continue to swear and take the Lord's name in vain surely he'll strike
you down himself. Biker tells him to fuck off and goes for one more
swing. It eats shit again so he says Holy fucking shit, goddamnit!
Then there's like, this rumbling in the sky, the clouds open
up......aaaaaaand a lightning bolt hits the preacher, he's fucking dead
dude. Then this booming voice rumbles from the sky, and it says...

FUCK, I MISSED."

It wasn't her funniest joke but it's what she thought of on the spot, she
even deepened and raised her voice a bit for the last line. She wasn't in a
good enough mood to laugh at her own joke though. But she'd get his reaction
and start the game of seeing just where the line in the sand started. Patty
tilted her head at the guy with an expectant look that she knew could do
some things to some people.
"...where's my beer, gray?"

He'd listen to the joke with his free hand on his chin, a smirk on his face and he'd nod along. She even tried to make some voices, that was amusing.

"Heheh... Hahahah." Archibald laughed for a bit at the joke, he had heard that one before but it was still funny somehow. She was the playful type, he could tell. That's good, she probably could take a few jokes and jabs without getting pissy... hopefully. He'd eventually find out, its not like it mattered to him if she got pissed off he'd just leave her to be pissy on her own. He'd take a deep breath before taking a sip from his bottle until the girl shot a question. Heh, she called him gray, nice. "I dunno, this one is mine and i ain't giving it away. I could go grab one for you, just give the money." The guy in the cap said in a playful tone, she probably thought he was there for a hook up, looking like that a lot of guys probably approach her for that. But sadly for her that wasn't his intention.

Though now that he had looked at her face for a while he has seen her before somewhere. He couldn't just put his finger on, his gut also told him she was trouble. Archibald being an actor could just keep smiling friendly.

"My bad, that was rude wasn't it? Name is Archibald, but you can call me Archie... or Gray, gray is fine too nobody ever calls me that but i like it now that i hear it." The young man shrugged. "Being real with you purple, i'm just here to mess with people, drink and dance a bit. You seemed like fun, nice style and vibe. 300% Bad Bitch." He'd flash her a thumbs up and an exaggerated smile to express approval.
"So what brings you to this little hell on earth? You seem like you are up for trouble yourself. Or am i off the mark here?" He'd lean on the wall about a meter or so away from the girl.

"Pssssshh! Shyeah right, as if. You fuckin'
suck," the druggie girl taunted. He knew the game alright. He was
not playing the game. Well there goes free drinks from this joker.
Besides, if she handed him any money she'd never see it again, you don't
just hand strangers money and let them walk away. Whatever. Not like
there wasn't other guys she could get to buy her drinks, she could talk the
talk.
"Mmmmmmm... Imma stick with Gray," she
smirked at him. She'd just keep on letting him call her purple, that was
fine with her. The less names involved the better, the better to leave a
trail of anonymous hell-raising in her wake anyway. Drink, dance, do bad
shit and disappear. No strings attached. Then he was buttering her up, she
really couldn't tell with him. He was either screwing with her or like...
trying to screw her. The lanky chick would entertain this line of
thought at least for a little while, see what happened. Just what would come
of it and what she'd do in that situation. He seemed kinda fun.
"300%? You're making an awful lot of assumptions about my
multiple personalities," she teased.

She let him lean on the wall, didn't move or anything, just watched the cars
roar slowly up the wet street as drunks and punks wandered up and down the
sidewalk. So what did bring her here?
"...my parents fucked once," she commented, a smirk
tugging at the side of her lip as she brought her cigarette to her mouth,
"Tzzzzzzzz... The rest is pretty damn long to tell in
one night... Pheewwwww... And it'll probably cost you a drink or 3.
But you can just wait for the movie to come out. Lindsay Lohan's in
it." She kept pretty non-serious about everything, Patty wasn't here
to be serious. She was here to get fucked up and make bad decisions and not
think about that guy she killed.
"I'm up for pretty much anything," she spoke in muted
tones. There was something in the way she said it that sounded...
off. Reckless. Dangerous. Maybe even a little sad.
"Just ride the wave, see where it takes me." It was a
statement from someone who walked a path of ruin and knew just exactly what
they bargained for, like someone out on a tightrope high above the ground in
a heavy wind with their arms out and a knowing grin on their face. She
turned to face Archie fully, cradling her cigarette in her hand.
"So you said you wanted to dance, huh?" Again, a
pretty clear statement on what she wanted to happen. But what she wanted to
happen was anything exciting, something entertaining, something to
experience, define who she is a little better.

Yeah she was playing along, he choose his company for the night right. She bounced back his jokes well, was actually funny in her sarcasm and dry humor. She didn't gave away her name though, not like he asked anyways. He could probably find out if he set himself to it anyways, he had an inkling of an idea where he should start looking for. Too much effort, might be worth it though depending on what happens tonight.

"Alright purple, whatever you choose." His shoulders made shrugging motion. He liked gray, short and snappy and also easy to identify. 'Who's gray? Oh the guy with the dyed gray hair.', it was nice. But he didn't had any friends to call him Gray, he only talked to his gramps regularly and he used Archie, Boy or Archibald Durand for when he was real angry. Everyone else was kind of lame or didn't like him and his shenenigans. "Just three? Good luck i'm 2 personalities ahead of ya', Purple." He chuckled and laughed, but there was no joke there. Only the truth, the devil inside his mask changed him in a few ways.

He'd laugh at her jokes for a bit, though little did she knew she just have him a new nickname to use. He'd stick to Purple, but Lindsey would be good for when he wanted to mix it up and not get repetitive with the color coding.

"As funny as you are, Lindsey. No biography is worth 3 drinks, i learned that the worst way with some guy back in Paris. I was boooooored to death and nothing' worth came from it. Lots of daddy issues and less spicy and juice stuff." Archibald might not have any friends but he has talked to a lot of people in his life, he had some idea of what's going here. Drown the pain with party and drugs, amusing and funny. Though never something he'd ever do, its easy to ignore your own problems when you spend so much time pretending to be someone you are not. "Ahhh, i see what is going on here." He ha some guesses, broken heart because of boyfriend, wanting to forget a mistake, running away from home or something. All possibilities, though he wouldn't say much more than that, just pretend he knows more than he actually does.


"Gray" would shuffle a bit to the song he was singing, he'd go on for only a couple seconds. He'd bump his hip against her at some point to lightly shove her, attempting to annoy her for a bit.

"Yeah, dancin' is fun, right?"

"So you're telling me there's 5 shades of Gray? Psssh, that book ripped me the fuck off," she'd joke. "You'd be surprised! 127 Hours was supposed to be really good and I needed a few drinks to get through that one. Holy shit dude, like NOTHING happens in that movie. If I wanted to watch someone slowly going crazy and praying for death I'd go to the DMV or some shit." He was chill and fun to mess around with, at least he wasn't like the sleaze bags that came in heavy and were up front about stuff. She hated those guys, they were freakin' pricks. But he was right, a lot of everyone's sob stories were more of the same. My family died in the Divide and I can't deal with it. Patricia took that as a gimme from most people. Everyone lost someone, loss wasn't that special but people liked to think it was. Everyone back home just accepted that and either banded together or turned on each other, to grab hold of what was left together or alone. But she didn't wanna talk about any of that so she's glad he wasn't interested. It'd suck to bullshit some long rambling tragic lie for a few hours, even for drinks. Sounded like work.

"Ya think so, huh?" the druggie chick echoed, finishing her cigarette and flicking it into the street. People could guess but they'd never get it right. No one would ever assume that the night before she tore some junkie to shreds. That really wasn't a normal thing to be upset about. Not a lot of people had to ask themselves that question. Can I kill someone if I had to? Patty knew she could, she thought she'd gotten away from it but you can't really escape who you are. That's why she was here. She belonged here. He messed with her and shimmied and she pushed him off by the shoulder when he bumped into her.
"Pffffsssh. C'mon Gray, let's go dance," she scoffed, breezing past him and into Seventh Circle. Just like the name implied it was pretty violent inside, but not literal violence. Pounding music, moving bodies, hardcore beats and everyone blowing off steam. One part metal, one part grunge, one part degenerate techno. Everyone was mostly drunk and amped up, it could go off like a powder keg it sorta felt like. It was pretty perfect for her sort of attitude. She needed a drink, she needed to move, and she needed to hit something or someone.

"More like 5 colors, red, purple, black and pink. Pink is really cute. I watched only the movie, my granpa's girlfriend loved it. Old woman stuff i guess!" He giggled and wheezed for a while. She wasn't that old, in fact she was very young for gramps but to the jester she was old. Kinda funny how age gap works. "Hah, for real? Sounds fucking booooooring. You should try to watch really bad movies drunk, preferably with someone else. Shit gets funny fast. I brought this dude over once and we both watched The Apartment, hehehehehhahah..." Deep breaths, Archie. Not gonna have a laughter attack over old stuff right now.

The guy would grin and nod before following Purple inside the club. The aesthetic was fucking nice, chaotic as well. Just the way he liked.

"Fucking wild, huh?" He'd take a long sip of his bottle before extending it to the purple haired girl. For now he was only following her, see what she'd do. He was leaning on just jumping in the crowd for now. "I'm ready to make some mistakes."

Patty hadn't watched either movies and didn't know what they were about. She only really watched like the big stuff or standup comedy, stuff she could watch with people and talk through it and they wouldn't get mad. Which is why she didn't watch a lot of movies, she didn't want to when she was alone and when she wasn't she couldn't do it without talking the whole time. But she found bits and pieces to latch onto.
"Your grampa's girlfriend?? Ahaha hooooly shit
dude, what a freakin' player!" She imagined one of those old dudes with swag for days, like one of the medallion-wearing old guys with the popped collars and the trilbies. Patty giggled at it, it was a pretty stupid thought to pop into her brain.
"Heeheehahaha yeah I LOVE drunk movie night! This one time we all got wasted and watched Goblin 2. It's SO BAAAAD! Like, the dude beats the goblins by eating grilled cheese. How freakin' dumb is that? Ahahaha so he's just like chowin' down on this freakin' grilled cheese and these shitty SFX goblins are exploding, it is super dumb!"

The druggie chick was  getting distracted. Which is sorta what she wanted and why she was here: to distract her from the fact that she killed someone the other night. But not exactly, it was easy to get sidetracked like this and if all she was gonna do was talk about movies and drink and smoke she wasn't ever gonna learn what she was capable of. She'd just ignore it and pretend nothing happened like she always did but that didn't tell her anything. Patty almost took the bottle and finished it but she wasn't completely reckless, at least not yet. Taking drinks from guys you didn't know was always a bad idea. She put an arm on his hand to lower it and got to shouting instead.
"Let's fuckin' do it! Hey yo! Gimme an Adios Motherfucker! I wanna tear shit UP! Ahahahahaaaaaaa...!"


Patty went to the bar first before hitting the dance floor, going back and forth all night. Having too many drinks, too many shots, and getting loose and acting like an idiot in the club. But she didn't do anything dangerous so she was pretty disappointed. Didn't feel like flirting with random guys, wasn't bought any drinks, as jumpin' as the club was it was pretty lame by her standards. Of anyone there she bet she was the only one willing to get that fucking trashed. It felt like something was missing, like she was holding back. Almost like she was trapped. As the night dragged on Patty kept drinking and dancing with her hollow smile, doing her best to be happy for the moment. But nothing ever got fixed.


Patty stood once again against the side of the club, this time fading harder with a mixed drink in a plastic cup in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She wasn't feeling satisfied from getting drunk and dancing. It felt empty. She wore a whimsical smirk with her eyes half open but deep down she was pretty discontent with everything and couldn't say why. Maybe it was the guilt. That she killed someone and now she was out here having a good time and he was dead. Or maybe it was something else. She wasn't sure. But she already decided on one thing.
"This 's fuckin' DULL," she proclaimed in a voice that definitely wasn't an inside voice, losing her smirk as she pouted and complained to Grey. "Y'know, I thought like, this w's gonna be the scene but i's NOT. S'fuckin' bullshit. Fuckin'.... drinks! I'm not havin' any fun!" She went to take a drag off her cigarette and almost missed twice.
"*tzzzzzzzzz* ...I wanna DO somethin', y'know? Like... I dunno. Get into shit. This ain't doin' NOTHIN', s'fuckin'... bullshit drinks. Psssssssh! LAAAAAAAAAME!"

"Girl, you have no idea. She is like one of those blonde bombshells you see in movies and younger than him. Though she is like forty." The young man continued to laugh along with the purple haired girl. He continued to laugh while she talked about the movie she had watched, though Archibald still payed attention though. "Pffft, sounds like a good laugh. Kinda fucked up how a goblin isn't a small goblet tho." He added, this time his quip was delivered with a deadpan.

He shrugged upon having the drink rejected. It was just beer but she was smart to not take it, after all they just had met. Although the druggie chick was not having what she wanted, the clown managed to pickpocket two suckers while at it, not much but hey money is money.

After some dancing he found himself leaning against a wall with Purple by his side. She seemed pretty discontent, getting a raised eyebrow from him. He wondered...

"Speak for yourself." He waved the couple dollar bills he got his hands on while smirking.
"Dudes still think i just grabbed their asses while they weren't looking heheh..." His hands were shoved inside his pockets. "Get into shit? Mmmm, i can help with that. I'm super fun." There was a pause while he stared with a cocky grin. "Like, is something or someone missing? Wanna break some shit? Pick some fights? Make a tattoo? When i'm bored i tend to start some dumb games, like who can steal more hood ornaments in one night or rolling down a hill inside a garbage can."